LITTLE ROCK (AP) — The Arkansas Democratic Party on Monday told a former state representative who resigned from the Legislature last year because of a felony theft conviction he isn’t eligible to run again for his seat and offered him a chance to drop his bid.

Party spokeswoman Candace Martin said the party sent a letter offering to refund former state Rep. Fred Smith his $3,000 filing fee if he resigned from running for his east Arkansas seat. Smith filed to run for the Legislature on Thursday after his attorneys told state party officials he was in the process of having his conviction expunged.

If Smith, a former Harlem Globetrotter, doesn’t drop his bid the party won’t certify him as a candidate and he will forfeit his filing fee, Martin said. Smith was given until Tuesday afternoon to respond.

The Chicot County Clerk’s office said Monday that there was no record of Smith’s conviction being expunged. State Sen. David Burnett, an attorney representing Smith, said he sent a proposed order on Feb. 22 to a Chicot County judge and the local prosecutor that would effectively clear Smith’s record but said he had not filed it with the clerk’s office.

Local prosecutors have objected to Smith’s attempts to have his conviction expunged. Burnett said he advised Smith against filing to run for the state House seat while the matter was pending.

Burnett said he had not yet talked with Smith and did not know how they would respond to the state party’s letter. Smith’s cellphone voice mailbox was full when contacted by The Associated Press.

“I think the whole thing is in limbo,” Burnett said.

Smith resigned from the House after a judge found him guilty of theft of property delivered by mistake. Prosecutors had charged Smith after an audit found that a school district issued a duplicate payment of $29,250 to a nonprofit group run by Smith and that both payments were cashed.

Before his resignation, the House had voted to allow him to serve despite questions about whether he has lived in Arkansas long enough to meet residency requirements.

Smith filed to run for his seat shortly before the filing deadline for state offices and at the time state party officials said they didn’t believe he was eligible. Smith wouldn’t tell reporters whether his conviction had been expunged.

During a brief rambling interview with reporters as he left the Capitol on Thursday, he repeatedly made references to God and one point called himself “the Tim Tebow of state representatives” — a reference to the devout Denver Broncos quarterback.